Composite tire innerliners and inner tubes

ABSTRACT

Tire innerliners and inner tubes are prepared from blends of general purpose rubbers and silicate clay. The clays provide the requisite low air permeability without adversely affecting the flexibility of the rubber composition.

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.08/467,257, filed Jun. 6, 1995; which is a divisional of U.S.application Ser. No. 08/042,972, filed Apr. 5, 1993.

The invention relates to novel compositions useful for the manufactureof tire innerliners and inner tubes as well as innerliners and tubescontaining these compositions. The innerliner compositions comprisevarious rubbers and mixtures of these rubbers containing silicate clayplatelets. The addition of these platelets to the rubbers produces acomposition which has sufficiently low air permeability to be useful inthe manufacture of tire innerliners and inner tubes.

It is well-known in the art that tire innerliners must be constructed ofmaterials which are relatively low in air permeability and yet flexible.General purpose rubbers do not possess the required low airpermeability. The rubbers which have been almost exclusively used forthis purpose are butyl rubbers, particularly the halogenated butylrubbers. Until recently, only these polymers possessed the necessarytraits to be useful in the manufacture of tire innerliners and tireinner tubes.

Recently, a novel family of copolymers has been used to manufacture tireinnerliners. Published International Application PCT/US91/04896discloses the use of isomonoolefin/para-alkyl styrene copolymers (IPMS)for the manufacture of tire innerliners. Tire innerliners made fromthese copolymers exhibit very low air permeability.

The addition of clays to rubber is well-known in the art. Clays havebeen added to rubber compositions to improve their strength. Forexample, U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,885 discloses the preparation of acomposite material by adding a layered silicate to rubber to improve themechanical properties. The resulting products, however, are relativelystiff and therefore are unsuitable for the use as tire innerliners.

A need exists to develop rubber compositions including general purposerubbers, butyl rubbers, and IPMS rubbers which possess sufficiently lowair permeability and are flexible so as to be suitable in the productionof tire innerliners.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It has recently been discovered that by controlling the size, spacing,and orientation of specific silicate clay platelets in a rubbercomposition, for example, a general purpose rubber, butyl rubber or anIPMS rubber, a rubber composition is obtained having sufficiently lowair permeability and flexibility to be useful as a tire innerliner orinner tube composition. This improved low air permeability obtained byuse of the platelets does not substantially decrease the flexibility ofthe rubber required for its use in a tire. Thus it is now possible toproduce a tire innerliner or inner tube from a general purpose rubber,and also improve the air permeability of butyl rubber or an IPMS rubber.Moreover, the ability to use general purpose rubbers for theinner-lining will help with the adhesion between the innerliner and thetire carcass in that the general purpose rubbers will be more compatiblewith the other rubber components of the tire.

The silicate platelets may also be contained in a butyl rubber typematrix. This results in lower air diffusion and is highly useful fortire innerliners and inner tubes with exceptionally long inflationretention.

In the practice of the invention the layers of silicate clay aredispersed in the rubber composition forming platelets of between 7 to 12angstroms thick. The inter layer distance is about 12 angstroms orgreater. In the practice of the invention the platelets should bealigned such that the majority of the platelets have their faceperpendicular to the direction of gas diffusion. In this manner theplatelets form a air barrier preventing the diffusion of air through therubber of the innerliner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Pneumatic tires are typically produced so that the inflation gas,usually air, is contained by a barrier. This barrier can be an innertube, an innerliner, or some part or all of the tire carcass. Thebarrier performs critical safety and utility functions in the tire. Ifdiffusion of the air through the tire is minimized, inflation pressureis maintained over a long period of time. Under-inflation leads to tiredamage and possible catastrophic tire failure.

Moreover, internal or inter-carcass pressure within the tire contributesto oxidative degradation of the rubber and reinforcing fibers and tointernal flaw growth during operation.

The compositions of this invention which have air barriercharacteristics greatly improved over the rubbers used to construct thebody of the tire can be used as inner tubes or innerliners.

The compositions of this invention can be directly incorporated in thecarcass of the tire. However, to keep the pressure as low as possible inthe area of the reinforcing elements in the tire, the lowest diffusioncomposition in the tire should be on the high pressure side of theseelements.

The innerliner, inner tube, or barrier compositions of the presentinvention comprise a rubber having layered silicate uniformly dispersedtherein. The content of the layered silicate and the rubber should be 1to about 50 parts per weight for 100 parts per weight of the rubber.With less than 0.5 parts per weight, insufficient silicate is present toadequately lower the air permeability of the composition. Conversely,when more than 50 parts by weight are used the composition is too stiffto be used as a tire innerliner composition. In the preferred embodimentthe silicate comprises from 2 to 30 parts by weight.

The layered silicate creates an air barrier within the compositionreducing the diffusion of air through the composition. The silicate is alayered phyllosilicate material composed of magnesium silicate layers oraluminum silicate layers having a thickness of 7 to 12 angstroms. Thelayered clay materials are negatively charged on account of theisomorphous ion exchange. They differ from one another in characteristicproperties depending upon the density and distribution of the negativecharges. The preferred layered silicate used in accordance with thisinvention is one which one negative charge occupies an area of 25 to200Å² on the layer surface.

Examples of the layered silicates which may be used in the practice ofthe invention are various clay minerals including smectite clay,minerals such as montmorillonite, saponite, beidellite, montronite,hectoritc, and stevensite; vermiculite and hallosite. These may benatural or synthetic clays. Of these montmorillonite is preferred.

In the present invention the innerliner composition should preferably becomposed of a complex and a solid rubber. The complex is composed of athe reactive rubber having positively charged groups and a layeredsilicate uniformly dispersed in said reactive rubber with the interlayerdistance greater than 12 angstroms. In addition, the complex shouldpreferably h the reactive rubber is solubilized in the solid rubber.This structure (i.e. platelets, reactive rubber, and solid rubber) isresponsible for the composite material having superior mechanicalcharacteristics, (i.e. flexibility, strength) while obtaining excellentlow air permeability. These pronounced effects are attributed to thefollowing.

The layered silicate is uniformly dispersed in the solid rubbercomponent because the layered silicate is directly bound to the reactiverubber having positively charged groups through ionic bonding and thereactive rubber is highly miscible in the solid rubber or can be reactedwith the solid rubber. In addition, in the case of vulcanized rubber,the layered silicate is directly connected to the rubber network chainformed by the rubber component, so that the layered silicate greatlyrestricts the molecular motion of the rubber network chains in thevicinity of the interface.

The fact that the layered silicate is uniformly dispersed in the rubbercomponent and is aligned with the faces of the layers essentiallyperpendicular to the pressure differential leads to the low airpermeability of the composition.

The compatibility of the solid rubber with the complex composed of thelayered silicate and the reactive rubber leads to low viscosity and goodprocessability at the time of processing. This is an advantage overother systems which may tend to increase viscosity at the time ofprocessing. In addition, the layered silicate directly connected to thereactive rubber is easily mobile and contributes to the dispersabilityof the layered silicate. The innerliner composition is produced suchthat the layered silicate is uniformly dispersed in the rubbercomposition. This structure is formed by dispersing the layered silicateinto the reactive rubber and solubilizing (i.e., mixing and desolving)the reactive rubber in the complex into the solid rubber. Any attempt touniformly disperse the layered silicate without the reactive rubber intosolid rubber would be unsuccessful because of the incompatibility of thetwo components. Thus the above-mentioned structure (i.e. compositematerial) cannot be made in such a reverse way.

The reactive rubber, which is commercially available, used in thepresent invention is one which has a positively charged group. Thepositively charged group may be in the main chain or side chain of thereactive rubber or at the terminal end thereof. The reactive rubber mayhave one or more positively charged groups in one molecule. Examples ofthe reactive rubber can include those which have polybutadiene;butadiene copolymers containing styrene, isoprene, acrylonitrile;polyisobutylene; isobutylene copolymers containing, butadiene, isoprene,styrene, para-methylstyrene; polychloroprene; ethylene propylene dienecopolymers; polyisoprene; copolymers of isoprene and styrene, butadieneand acrylonitrile; natural rubber; or modified product thereof in themain chain or a portion thereof and also have in the molecule an oniumsalt represented by˜M.sup.⊕ R¹ R² R³ (where M denotes N, S, P, or##STR1## and R¹, R², and R³ independently denote hydrogen, alkyl groups,aryl groups, or allyl group, which may be the same or different) or anonium salt precursor represented by the formula˜MR¹ R² (where M denotesN, S, P, or ##STR2## and R¹ or R² independently denote hydrogen, alkylgroups, aryl groups and allyl groups, which my be the same ordifferent). One or more reactive rubbers may be used. Thecovulcanization of the reactive rubber and the solid rubber depends onthe molecular weight of the reactive rubber and the types ofcrosslinking sites as well as their concentration. For goodcovulcanization, the reactive rubber should preferably have a molecularweight higher than 450.

The layered silicate is uniformly dispersed into the reactive rubber.The layered silicates is contained in the complex in an amount of 1 to45 parts by weight per 100 parts of the reactive rubber. The dispersionof the layered silicate produces an ionic association between thereactive rubber, preferably liquid rubber, and the layered silicate. Inother words, the individual layers of the silicate are completelyseparated from one another by the force greater than the bonding force(such as van der Waals forces and electrostatic attractive forces)between the layers. Moreover, the negative charge on the silicate isassociated with the positive charge (onium ion) in the reactive rubberthrough ionic bonding or association.

A substantial fraction of the layered silicate in the complex shouldhave an interlayer distance of greater than 12 angstroms. With aninterlayer distance less than 12 angstroms, the complex does notuniformly disperse into the solid rubber.

The solid rubber should preferably be one which has a molecular weightof greater than 10,000 so that it can be vulcanized or crosslinked inthe bulk state. Solid rubbers which may be used in the practice of thisinvention include polybutadiene; butadiene copolymers containingstyrene, isoprene or acrylonitrile; polyisobutylene, isobutylenecopolymers containing butadiene, isoprene, styrene or paramethylstyrene;polychloroprene, ethylene propylene diene copolymers; polyisoprene,isoprene copolymers containing butadiene, styrene, acrylonitrile andnatural rubber.

The complex composed of the layered silicate and reactive rubber shouldbe compounded with the solid rubber at a ratio of 1 to 100 parts byweight of the former to 100 parts by weight of the latter, preferably 2to 50 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the solid rubber. Ifthe amount of the complex is less than 1 part by weight, the layeredsilicate produces little effect for the rubber phase containing solidrubber and reactive rubber. With an amount in excess of 100 parts byweight, the content of the reactive rubber in the rubber phase is sohigh that it impairs the inherent characteristics of the solid rubber.

The rubber composition may be incorporated according to need with carbonblack to enhance the reinforcement effect and other characteristics ofthe rubber. Examples of carbon black include SAF (N11), ISAF (N220), HAF(N330), FEF (N550), GPF (N660), and SRF (N770) [ASTM designations inparentheses]. Carbon black should be added in an amount of 0 to 100parts by weight, preferably 0 to 70 parts by weight for 100 parts byweight of the solid rubber. With an amount in excess of 100 parts byweight, the resulting rubber composition has such a high viscosity thatthe improvement of processability of the complex is less significant.

Other compounding materials may also be used in the compositions tocontrol rheological and physical properties well known in the art. Theseinclude non-reinforcing fillers, such as, clays and plasticizers, suchas hydrocarbon process oils, low molecular weight hydrocarbon resins andalkyl phthalates.

The content of the layered silicate in the innerliner compositionsshould preferably be 2 to 50 parts by weight for 100 parts by weight ofthe total rubber. With the content of less than 1 part by weight, thelayered silicate does not significantly reduce the air permeability ofthe innerliner composition. With a content of greater than 50 parts byweight, the resulting innerliner composition is too stiff for use as atire innerliner.

The rubber composition is characterized by the fact that the reactiverubber in the complex is solubilizable in or reactive with the solidrubber. In other words, the reactive rubber component in the complex hasgood miscibility with the solid rubber or can be made to crosslink withthe solid rubber. The solid rubber includes elastomeric compositionsthat exhibit glass transition temperatures of less than about -25° C.Examples of these solid rubbers include polybutadiene; butadienecopolymers of styrene, isoprene, or acrylonitrile; polyisobutylene;isobutylene copolymers containing butadiene, isoprene, styrene, orpara-methylstyrene; polychloroprene; ethylene propylene dienecopolymers; polyisoprene; isoprene copolymers containing butadiene,styrene or acrylonitrile and natural rubber. The thermoplasticelastomers may also be used for the solid rubber component of theinvention.

The rubber composition may have incorporated, in addition, carbon black,acid acceptors, or antioxidants or other commonly used additivesaccording to need. This rubber composition can be vulcanized withsulfur, peroxide, etc. or other vulcanizing agents and vulcanizationaccelerators commonly used for solid rubbers. In addition, vulcanizationcan be accomplished with any vulcanizing molding machine.

The innerliner composition of the present invention may be producedaccording to the following process. First, a clay mineral composed of alayered silicate is uniformly dispersed in water in a concentrationlower than 5 wt. %. Separately, reactive rubber having a positivelycharged group, preferably a terminal end group, is dispersed in asolvent in a concentration lower than 50 wt. %. They are mixed togetherwith vigorous stirring to make a homogeneous mixture. The mixing ratioof the layered silicate to the reactive rubber should preferably be1:0.1 to 1:5 on a dry basis. The complex which is composed of thelayered silicate in reactive rubber and dispersed in the watercontaining mixed solvent is collected by vacuum filtration or pressurefiltration followed by a preliminary drying at 50 to 100° C. in airfollowed by drying at 80° to 150° C. in vacuo. The solubilization of thereactive rubber having silicate uniformly dispersed therein in thecomplex into the solid rubber may be accomplished by mixing the complexwith solid rubber or by mixing with an emulsion or latex of the solidrubber. During the mixing, carbon black or other additives are added.Thus, there is obtained the desired composite material which is based onrubber as the resin.

The rubber compositions of the present invention can then be formed intotire innerliners or inner tubes using conventional processing techniquessuch as calendering or extrusion followed by building the tire andmolding.

It has been discovered that when the compositions of this invention areprepared they exhibit a brittle temperature of less than about -20° C.and an air diffusion of less than about one half of that of styrenebutadiene rubber and also are preferably crosslinkable with chemicalcuratives.

In producing the tire innerliner composition of the invention, care mustbe taken to insure that the platelets are at least 25 times longer and25 times wider than they are thick and that the plates are on averagearranged such that about 40% of the platelets are arranged so that theface is perpendicular to the direction of gas diffusion due to animposed pressure differential. Orientation can be determined by methodswell known in the art such as electron microscopy.

Platelets can be arranged in several ways. Extruding, extending orshearing the material before crosslinking lines the plates up in thedirection of flow. In addition, if the platelets are small, and havecharges on the surface, this can facilitate a self-aligning morphologyto inhibit diffusion. The use of the self-aligning characteristic isparticularly useful if the materials are prepared with a solvent presentto reduce the viscosity of the system. In this case the inneliner may becast as a film and used conventionally or applied to a vulcanized tire.

EXAMPLE 1

A layered silicate, montmorillonite clay, was slurried with water at onepart of clay per 100 parts of water and centrifuged to removeimpurities. The clay slurry was then contacted with excess ion exchangeresin. The resin was in the acid form and thus produced the acid form ofthe clay. The water slurry of the acid clay was contacted in a Waringblender with a 5% by weight toluene solution of a reactive rubber, Hycar1300 (amine terminated butadiene-acrylonitrile oligomer from B.F.Goodrich Co., Mn about 1300). On contact in the Waring blender there wasa sharp increase in the viscosity. The material was further mixed in amicrofluidizer and the water and toluene were removed by distillation.The final material contained 25 parts of clay per 75 parts of reactivepolymer. The material was light brown and clear. The distance betweenthe silicate layers was determined by x-ray scattering to be 14angstroms. The glass transition temperature was measured by dynamicmechanical thermal analysis. The material exhibited a major loss peak(maximum in tanδ) at -37° C. The major loss peak for the Hycar 1300without the clay was -41° C.

The polymer-clay composition was pressed into a film about 17 mils thickin a press heated to 125° C. to give a clear, flexible film. Thediffusion of gas through the film was measured on an Oxtran 2/20diffusion device manufactured by Mocon, Minneapolis, Minn. Theexperiments were carried out at 30° C. and 0% relative humidity. Oxygenwas used as the diffusing gas. Under these conditions the polymer-claycomposition exhibited an oxygen transmission rate of 4.2 cm³ -mil/m² day10³. Under the same condition a styrene-butadiene copolymer (SBR-1500)typically used in the manufacture of tires had an oxygen transmissionrate of 91.2 cm³ -mil/m² day 10³ or about 22 times greater than thecomposite.

EXAMPLE 2

The polymer-clay composition of Example 1 was applied to the innersurface of a passenger car tire at a thickness of about 15 mil. Prior tothe application of the polymer-clay composition the tire lost inflationpressure at about 1.5 psi/month at 30° C. at an inflation pressure of 32psi. After the polymer-clay composition was applied the loss ofinflation pressure was less than 0.2 psi/month.

Example 3

A polymer clay composition containing 4.8 parts montmorillonite clay, 19parts Hycar 1300 amine terminated butadiene acrylonitrile oligomer and76 parts by weight of styrene-butadiene copolymer (SBR-1500) wassynthesized by first reacting acid clay with the reactive polymer by theprocedure of Example 1. After the reactive polymer and clay had beenmixed, SBR-1500 emulsion was added with further mixing in themicrofluidizer. Toluene and water were then removed by distillation andfurther drying under vacuum. The polymer-clay composition was pressedinto a film 22 mils in thickness on a hot press at 125° C.

The film was soft and flexible at room temperature and had a brittlenesstemperature of less than about 45° C. The oxygen transmission rate wasmeasured under the conditions of Example 1 and found to be 42.5 cm³-mil/m² day 10³. This is less than one-half the oxygen transmission rateof the SBR-1500.

EXAMPLE 4

The polymer clay composition of Example 3 was compounded on a two-rollmill with 2 phr (parts per hundred parts of rubber by weight) of stearicacid, 5 phr zinc oxide, 2 phr sulfur, and 1.5 phr Altax (benzothiazyldisulfide) and vulcanized into a 20 mil thick pad by heating in a moldfor 20 min. at 153° C.

The composition was insoluble in toluene showing it to be well cured andit exhibited the same oxygen transmission rate as the uncured sample.

The composition containing the curatives was sheeted out on a two rollmill to form an uncured sheet about 35 mils in thickness. SBR-1500 wascompounded with the same amounts of curatives and also sheeted out on atwo roll mill to form an uncured sheet about 30 mils in thickness. Thesheets were pressed together in a mold and press cured by heating for 20min. at 153° C. The sheets could not be separated after vulcanization.

What is claimed is:
 1. A tire inner-tube comprising a complex and solidrubber, said complex being composed of reactive rubber having apositively charged group and a layered silicate uniformly dispersedtherein, the interlayer distance of said layered silicate being greaterthan 12 angstroms and the reactive rubber being soluble in orcrosslinkable with the solid rubber.
 2. The tire inner-tube described inclaim 1 wherein the reactive rubber is one which has a molecular weightof greater than
 450. 3. The tire inner-tube as claimed in claim 1wherein the layered silicate is contained in the complex in an amount of1 to 45 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the reactive rubber.4. The tire inner-tube as described in claim 1 wherein the solid rubberis one selected from the group consisting of natural rubber, syntheticrubber, thermoplastic elastomer and blends thereof.
 5. The tireinner-tube as defined in claim 1 wherein the solid rubber ispolybutadiene.
 6. The tire inner-tube as claimed in claim 1 wherein thesolid rubber is one which has a molecular weight of not less than10,000.
 7. The tire inner-tube as defined in claim 1 wherein the contentof said complex is 2 to 50 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight ofthe solid rubber.
 8. The tire inner-tube as defined in claim 1 whichfurther comprises carbon black.
 9. The tire inner-tube as defined inclaim 1 wherein said reactive rubber comprises one or more rubberselected from the group consisting of polybutadiene; butadiene copolymerwhich contains styrene, isoprene, or acrylonitrile; polyisobutylene;isobutylene containing copolymers containing butadiene, isoprene,styrene, para-methylstyrene; polychloroprene; ethylene propylene dienecopolymers; polyisoprene; isoprene copolymers containing isobutylene,butadiene, styrene or acrylonitrile; natural rubber; or modified productthereof said reactive rubber further comprising an onium salt or anonium salt precursor.
 10. The tire inner-tube defined in claim 9 whereinsaid onium salt has the general structure

    M.sup.⊕ R.sup.1 R.sup.2 R.sup.3

wherein M denotes nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous or ##STR3## and R¹, R²,and R³ independently denote hydrogen, alkyl groups, aryl groups or allylgroups which may be the same or different.
 11. The tire inner-tubedefined in claim 9 wherein said onium salt precursor has the generalstructure

    ˜MR.sup.1 R.sup.2

wherein M denotes nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous or ##STR4## and R¹ andR² independently denote hydrogen, alkyl groups, aryl groups or allylgroups which may be the same or different.
 12. The tire inner-tubedefined in claim 1 wherein said reactive rubber is an amine terminatedrubber.
 13. The tire inner-tube defined in claim 11 wherein saidreactive rubber comprises amine terminated butadiene-acrylonitrilerubber.
 14. The tire inner-tube defined in claim 1 wherein said layeredsilicates comprises phyllosilicate.
 15. The tire inner-tube defined inclaim 1 wherein said layered silicates is a clay selected from the groupconsisting of smectite clays, vermicultite and hallosite.
 16. The tireinner-tube defined in claim 1 wherein said layered clay ismontmorillonite.